There are several reasons why the software engineering profession is dominated by men. In my opinion, the main reason is because people expect it to be that way, and so they act in ways that reinforce it. On sites like Slashdot and Kuro5hin, it is common for people to make stupid jokes like this one, about how there are no women in the programming community. Eventually, the sheer volume of such jokes piles up, and women start to feel unwelcome.
These jokes are almost always just bad taste, and are not intended to make anyone feel unwelcome. However at some point, someone has to point out that enough is enough. Unfortunately, by pointing this out, you open yourself to attack. Quite commonly, people will rightly point out that your comment is off-topic (but where else are you supposed to mention it?). You sometimes will be called a troll, even though all you are doing is reminding people that you belong to the same community. And occasionally, you will be viciously insulted.
I usually don't mind the initial jokes, even though most people seem to think that because I bothered to mention it, I'm being "thin-skinned". However, the defensiveness that my comments stir up makes me think two things: this problem is much more ingrained than most programmers are willing to accept, and hardly anybody cares enough to try to change it.
Posted on July 14, 2003 04:07 PM
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That post on Slashdot wasn't about the lack of women, it was about the supposed lack of success with women that typifies Slashdotters. Implying that Slashdotters are all pasty faced, porn obsessed geeks who are (or will be) 40 year old virgins is a guaranted "+5 funny." Of course, that implicitly assumes that all Slashdotters are male, so you're still on target..
Posted by: rps at July 16, 2003 07:20 PMIt has to be said: Slashdot != the programming community. While there's certainly some intersection between the two, I seriously doubt the majority of working programmers read Slashdot. Sure, I do, but I doubt that any of my coworkers have even heard of it here in the aerospace/defense/communications industry. I'd say lack of women in the programming field and lack of women in the Slashdot gaming-dork/sysadmin/tech-support/hacker population are two separate issues.
Posted by: Avdi at October 1, 2003 10:16 AM>it is common for people to make stupid jokes
>like this one, about how there are no women
>in the programming community
Ah, but you're guilty of promoting the stereotype yourself. The joke merely accuses slashdotters of being sexually inactive; it's sufficiently funny to imagine them as a bunch of unattractive socially inept people. It doesn't mean they're only men (in fact, it's arrogant of you to say it does).
Bill, point taken. I read more into "This is slashdot, no chance of pregnancy here" than I technically had a right to. I still think my interpretation was probably what the poster actually intended, but I admit my interpretation was not necessarily justified.
My experience in the financial programming world is that there are a lot of women. While not 50%, there are certainly enough to allow me to have met many capable developers. Further there are relatively few bona fide "closet-dwelling geeks" who would have the social ineptitude to take pleasure in... well, social ineptitude. This combined with some important discrimination suits in Wall Street companies have chilled the kind of sexism you have noted.
However, that's not to say you are in any way off the mark or unjustified. Generally people who engage in dysfunctional sexist behavior are not worth trying to retrain into more socially acceptable individuals. IMO, your best bet is simply to note your disapproval and move on.
Generally I have found that software groups (parts of an organization that relies on software but not focused on software) tend to reflect the atmosphere/philosophy/breakdown of the larger organization rather than form their own. But in a technology company it often runs very heaviy male. Often around 90% or more male.